by Dianna Love
Evalle frowned. What did that mean, exactly? She didn’t have time to ask. Kai spoke faster now, obviously trying to get the information out while she could.
“I doubt that you know what you’re up against with the witch doctor. She holds his soul and owns his life, neither of which she will release to anyone as long as she lives.”
“Guess I’ll just have to take that decision out of her hands,” Evalle said, not joking a bit.
Kai’s soft features turned sad. “You must allow Storm to regain his soul and free his father from wandering between worlds. Storm believes that the one who kills the witch doctor before that happens will gain her possessions. It’s critical to him that he be the one to take back the souls. You must be careful not to interfere with Storm’s chance to regain something he believes is necessary to have a life with you.”
Air backed up on Evalle’s next breath at those words. A normal life with Storm would be all she’d ever want. Had he said something to Kai about wanting one with Evalle?
Kai began to fade.
Oh no. “Stop, Kai. Please. I need to find the witch doctor. Where do I start?”
“Use resources in your world and your connection to him.”
“You mean this emerald in my chest?”
Kai wavered out of view then came back into focus just long enough to say, “No, your connection as his mate.” Then she was gone.
Mate? Did she mean like ...
Evalle couldn’t come up with any other definition for mate except the one that meant being bonded as a couple.
“Where are you going? I want to know what you meant about ... ” Evalle stopped shouting when Storm’s living room came back into view.
“Meant about what?” Adrianna asked with genuine curiosity in her voice.
Evalle was not about to admit that she didn’t know what Storm’s spirit guide had meant about being his mate or that the witch doctor possessed Storm’s soul. Not to the Sterling witch.
Covering her outburst, Evalle said, “About finding Storm. Kai said she thinks he followed the witch doctor to another realm.”
“Kai?” Nicole asked, wheeling back into the conversation circle.
“His spirit guide,” Evalle explained. “Oh, and Kai also said that Storm would only return for me.”
“Then you are the only person who can locate him,” Adrianna was quick to point out.
Evalle nodded, “Exactly.”
Nicole looked worried. That couldn’t be a good sign. She asked, “You do realize if the witch doctor is in another realm, it’s the kind that might require a dark guide.”
“No, it will require a dark guide,” Adrianna corrected.
Evalle nodded. “Storm told me the witch doctor is pure evil. He wouldn’t even speak the woman’s name.” This was no time for being vague or testing the waters. Evalle pushed up to stand and asked Adrianna point blank, “Can you lead me to Storm?”
“Possibly. For the right price.”
“What’s your price?”
“If I get you to Storm, plus help you figure out how to free him, then you and he will both fulfill his debt to me.”
“Done. What is it you need?”
“I’m not telling anyone until you’re both ready and neither of you is right now.” Adrianna folded her hands in front of her, always so prim and proper. “If you don’t go for him soon, Evalle, you may not have a reason to go for him at all.”
The skin along Evalle’s necked chilled at that warning. “What makes you say that?”
“I first heard about this witch doctor the week Storm was injured. A Nightstalker tried to trade with me for information on a woman from South America who was in the city hunting a Skinwalker who could shift into a jaguar.”
“Did you tell Storm?” Evalle asked.
“Yes, but I haven’t spoken to him since then, well, not in private–”
And you’re not going to if I can do anything about it.
“–but I’ve heard more since then.”
Realization hit Evalle at the same moment Nicole narrowed her eyes at Adrianna, but Evalle was first to speak. “You’ve been trading for information on Storm?”
“Not exactly, but you may view it that way.”
“And you expect me to trust you to guide me into some dark realm.”
Adrianna lifted a delicate eyebrow. “No, I don’t expect you to do anything. Storm is depending on you, not me.”
“Point taken.” With little sleep and no sign of Storm in the mortal world, Evalle was getting testy. No point in taking it out on everyone around her. “What did you find out about Storm and this South American woman? Was it the witch doctor?”
Adrianna dipped her head in acknowledgement. “You’re asking the correct questions. Yes, the woman asking about him is the witch doctor, a dark witch of the highest caliber.”
“Or lowest, depending on your world view,” Evalle muttered.
Ignoring her, Adrianna continued. “If this woman has either captured Storm or tricked him into another realm, somewhere Kai can’t find his spirit, then I’m guessing it’s for one reason. To take control of him.”
“No one controls Storm,” Evalle argued.
“Not in the state of mind he was when you last saw him, but if he’s turned into Nadina’s slave, the game changes significantly.”
“Nadina? That’s the witch doctor?”
Adrianna nodded. “Now you can be glad for the research I’ve done.”
Evalle had to admit that she was thankful for any intel right now.
According to Kai, Storm did not have his soul. Would that make him even more vulnerable to this Nadina? Evalle had to sit down. She felt light headed with so many possibilities and none of them good.
For once, Adrianna’s voice held a compassion that Evalle had never heard. “I know you don’t want to trust me, but the more you can tell me the better chance I have of figuring out just where he went. The longer we take, the less chance of getting him back.”
No. I will not lose him now that I’ve found the man I want to spend forever with. Even his spirit guide believed Evalle was Storm’s mate. Evalle sat up straight, shifting into battle mode. She could keep trading insults with Adrianna or she could step out on a limb and offer trust in exchange for help–two things she’d learned to give and accept because of having Storm in her life.
Decision made, she said, “What I’m about to tell both of you is Storm’s personal business, but it is relevant to what’s going on. I don’t want to risk a mishap because I didn’t share everything.”
Nicole offered her a smile of understanding, because Nicole knew how hard this was for her.
Evalle explained what Kai had told her about the witch doctor stealing Storm’s and his father’s souls. When she finished, Adrianna’s dainty face took on a hard expression. “Needing to get his father’s soul back adds another obstacle, but there is a way to regain his soul and free his father’s.”
“How? I’ll do it.”
Adrianna said, “First you have to be sure this witch doctor hasn’t traded the souls for something else.”
“Okay, then what?”
“You kill her, which passes possession of those souls from her to you.”
Evalle shook her head, thinking out loud. “That’s a problem, because Kai warned me not to screw up Storm’s chance to have his soul returned. If I ended up with the souls, I have no idea how to return them to the rightful owners and I don’t want to own Storm’s.”
“There is a danger in owning souls, but you can’t overlook that as a potential solution,” Adrianna added with plenty of warning. “Besides, a being as powerful as Nadina has few vulnerabilities unless you’re a deity, so killing her is not as simple as you think, but none of this will matter unless you can locate Storm and the witch doctor.”
“Which one can we locate the quickest?”
“Storm, because of your connection to him, but you’ll have to trust me to help you reach him.”
Trust a Sterl
ing witch. Locate Storm. Make the witch doctor hand over his soul and his father’s.
All in less than twenty-four hours or Brina would just disintegrate and that was assuming the witch doctor didn’t vaporize Evalle first.
Evalle asked, “Trust you to do what?”
Adrianna said, “It will be easier to show you.”
I knew you were going to say that.
Chapter 8
Evalle parked Storm’s sport utility close to Grady Hospital. She’d named her favorite Nightstalker after the place because he usually hung out here. Nicole had been a sweetheart to keep Feenix for her and, if Evalle was being entirely fair, Adrianna had done her a favor by following them to Nicole’s apartment and giving Evalle a ride back to Storm’s house.
Adrianna must really want that debt paid.
If the Sterling witch helped Evalle find Storm, Evalle would more than do her part to repay Adrianna.
Evalle checked her watch. Thirty-two minutes until meeting Adrianna. Just enough time to hunt down a cranky ghoul.
Snagging her backpack from the passenger seat, she hooked her arms through the straps as she headed out to find Grady. He should be near the narrow stretch of road between the hospital and an eight-foot-tall right-of-way barrier that did little to diffuse noise from the heavily traveled interstate that ran through Atlanta’s downtown. This should be Grady’s usual haunting ground, but he’d recently expanded his territory.
He also took corporeal form on occasion without requiring the handshake with a powerful being.
That would be Evalle’s fault, and a favor she’d granted that might one day come back to bite her, but she had too many jaws after her butt right now to spend time worrying over that one.
She raced along the quiet back street abutting the hospital, hissing, “Grady!” every three steps.
He hadn’t been here earlier, but she’d only done a half-assed search since all the Nightstalkers had vanished, gone into hiding from predators stalking the city. Getting to Storm’s house had been priority one at the time.
A movement off to her right yanked her attention sideways. There he was, hovering in the shadows next to a dumpster, talking to someone in a cloak.
A person Evalle didn’t recognize.
A cloak? The weather hadn’t turned cold yet. Not brisk enough to wear something that appeared to be wool.
She headed for Grady and his suspicious friend, ready to use her VIPER status to inquire as to the stranger’s identity.
Nothing confrontational.
That was the plan until the stranger shoved a hand out to shake with Grady.
Evalle caught a hint of rotten limes and the hair rose on her neck. She called, “What’s going on, Grady?”
The cloaked stranger turned toward Evalle, face hidden inside the dark hood, then backed up and rushed away. Not the reaction of an innocent person. She reached Grady just as he was scowling up a storm.
He crossed his filmy arms that were covered in the same plaid shirt he’d worn since dying as a homeless person. His baggy pants attested to how thin he’d been when he died. Grumbling like an old bear run out of his cave before he was finished hibernating, Grady told her, “You better have somethin’ to make up for that loss.”
“Who was that?” She inhaled again, and the rotten lime smell verified her earlier impression. “Medb? You were going to share intel with a Medb?”
“I ain’t the only one,” he argued.
“That’s my enemy.”
“I know that. That warlock was gonna tell me what’s goin’ down in town.”
This was beyond bizarre.
She grabbed her head and took a second. Getting Grady riled was never helpful. When it came to getting information, he could be tougher than prying a clam open with fingernails, but he had a soft spot for her. Sometimes.
In a calmer voice, she asked, “What’s a Medb doing in Atlanta to begin with when they’ve just attacked Treoir, and what is going down in the city that you think he could tell you about?”
Grady just hovered with his arms crossed and his bottom lip shoved up in stubborn determination.
She dropped a strap off one shoulder and swung the backpack around. When she lifted Old Forrester into view, Grady’s eyes flickered with desire, but he tried to hide his interest.
She shook the bottle at him. “I am not going to apologize for stopping that trade. You know better than to deal with a Medb, Grady.”
“Things have changed in the last few hours.”
That was news, but not enough. “What changed?”
“You cost me a deal. I’m gonna want more than one handshake.”
“What? Are you kidding me? I gave you–” She caught herself and lowered her voice. “–more than two handshakes at one time.” She’d broken the VIPER rule of not shaking hands with a ghoul for more than a minute, because Grady had wanted to be in human form to hear and see his granddaughter’s wedding. So Evalle had hidden with him on the balcony of a church and she’d held his hand almost solid time for twenty minutes.
Finally, he lost the glower and hunched his shoulders. “I just haven’t been able to stay solid on my own for the last two days and you been gone.”
Great. Now she felt guilty. “Then make a deal with me and shake,” she said in more gentle tone.
“What you lookin’ for?”
Hadn’t she just asked him about the Medb and whatever was going on in town? Did ghouls get dementia? “I want to know what is up with the Medb and I need information on a witch doctor.”
“Done.” He stuck his wrinkled hand out and warm eyes peered at her from a coffee-bean-brown face.
When they connected, the power raced down her arm and vibrated around their hands. Grady’s eyes rounded. He said, “What’s happened to you?”
Had evolving into a gryphon changed her power? “A lot and I’ll tell you all about it as soon as I have time, but I’m under a time crunch.”
When Grady let go of her hand he stood in his human form with gray whiskers and skin dark as a walnut. He wiped a hand over his mouth. “You gonna sweeten the deal or not?”
She handed over the bottle, giving him time to guzzle a good belt of it before moving him along. “What’s happening in town?”
He tucked the bottle next to his chest. “Someone turned a bunch of demons loose.”
Two would be too many. “What’s a bunch?”
“Heard sightings of eight so far.”
“Who would have done that?” she pondered out loud.
“Don’t know. I ain’t seen any myself to know what kind they are or where they might have originated.”
“Why did you think that warlock would know anything?”
“Cuz there’s Medb all over the city?”
“And VIPER’s allowing that?” Evalle asked, furious. “Beladors are their largest force.” Had everyone in VIPER forgotten that the Medb just attacked Treoir?
She wanted to stomp Sen’s butt. The liaison between VIPER agents and the Tribunal had to be the one allowing this.
But that made no sense. Sen hated Evalle, but pissing off the Belador agents would put him in ill favor with the Tribunal. Not even Sen would want to face a Tribunal of two gods and a goddess who would decide his fate.
“You through havin’ a hissy fit?” Grady asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Start talking.”
He slugged another drink first. “Like I said, someone dumped demons out here and VIPER is in upheaval because the Beladors ain’t pullin’ their weight.” He lifted a hand. “Before you go off on me again, you have to know the Beladors are having power problems, right?”
“Yes,” she admitted.
“How come?”
“The Medb attacked Treoir and the Belador traitor was inside with Brina. He tossed some Noirre dust on her then Tzader killed him, but not before Brina vanished, leaving her hologram. The Beladors should have no power, but that hologram must be holding a connection between Brina and Treoir. Apparently the power base is st
ill intact but corrupted.” She realized who she was talking to–a Nightstalker social butterfly–and pointed a finger at him. “But you don’t need to advertise that.”
“Don’t be pointin’ no finger at me.”
With some beings, pointing a finger could be construed as a threat. In Grady’s case, it just annoyed him, which was nonproductive. The clock was chewing up minutes, but she had a duty to the Beladors here in Atlanta as well. “Have any of the demons been caught or killed?”
“That’s the kicker. I’ve heard of two different incidents where Medb witches and warlocks have killed the demons and saved a human.”
Had the earth dropped off its axis? What was going on? “So now you want me to believe that the Medb have turned into good Samaritans?
He held his arms out. “I don’t make this stuff up. They’ve been turnin’ up all over town, not causin’ trouble and savin’ VIPER’s bacon.”
Was she just too cynical to accept this at face value? No, it was more a matter of being too realistic to believe thousands of years of deadly behavior could change overnight. There was something way wrong with this picture. What were the Medb up to now? And who was running their show?
Grady pointed at Evalle. “You got big problems. Sen’s been on a tear. You need to do somethin’ with Quinn.”
“Why?” She had a sick feeling this might be about Quinn’s lack of control.
“He ain’t right. Word is that Sen came in and cleaned up one of Quinn’s messes then told Quinn that being actin’ Maistir does not give him free rein.”
Leave it to Sen to make things worse when the Beladors could use a hand. “What did Quinn do?”
“I heard he caught a troll stalking a human. Grabbed the troll and did some kind of mind control then sent the troll on his way.”
“That doesn’t sound bad.” Quinn hated to take control of a person’s mind by force and tried not to be invasive. If the troll went away then Quinn must have thought the troll was no longer a threat.
“That’s not the problem. A bit later, Quinn found a Medb warlock hanging around Centennial Park. Word is that Quinn snatched the warlock’s mind, left the guy wandering around until he walked out in front of a Marta Bus. When Sen showed up to clean up that mess, he told Quinn if he had to come back again for bullshit, that Quinn could explain it to a Tribunal.”